Matthew's Travel Page

Some details of my recent travels, for anyone who is interested.

Left the UK on 2nd August, 2001. Down to Dover to meet up with my fellow travellers and the folks from First 48 who took us to Nepal in their wonderful yellow and blue trucks.

After 4 months of driving through Europe, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Iran, India and Nepal, we arrived in Kathmandu on 6th December. On the way, we encountered robbery, mechanical breakdown, a broken arm, the September 11th thing of course, which stops us travelling through Pakistan, a nasty accident with a tuk-tuk in Northern India, and, of course, get lost a few times.

On the way we visited Cologne Cathedral, the castle at Bran in Romania, Istanbul, the Roman ruins at Ephesus, including the remains of one of the Wonders of the World, the Temple of Artemis (now just a collection of truncated columns), the fantastic rock houses of Cappadocia, the mighty fortresses of Aleppo and Krak des Chevaliers in Syria, Petra in Jordan, Palmyra with its strange inscriptions, the sacred pool of Urfa in Turkey and the basalt walls of Diyarbakir and the strange churches of Armenia.

In Iran, we saw the mosques of Esfahan and Shiraz, the wind towers of Yazd and the wonderful mud city of Bam. India was too many temples, forts and palaces to recount.

Also: the limestone formations of Pamukalle in Turkey, the bleak deserts of Syria and Jordan, swimming in the Dead Sea, the Red Sea and Lake Van. Both Nemrut Dagi's and Mount Ararat in Turkey, and the volcanic landscape around, the Ali Sadr Caves in Iran. The Himalayas in Northern India and Nepal, the desert of Rajasthan and the great river Ganges.

Fun activities included catching runaway donkeys in Bulgaria, drunken evenings in Oludeniz, (much japery with frogs and wrong sleeping bags), drinking competitions and mighty hangovers on the shores of the Red Sea, paragliding in the Indian Himalayas, hubble bubbles in Iran, and bhang cookies in India.

Arrived Nepal 29th November, a few days after the declaration of a State of Emergency ("I do not think you will have a good time in Nepal" says friendly Army officer). Stopped at Bardia National Park and Pokhara before getting to Kathmandu on 6th December. Spent a few weeks hanging out in Kathmandu, seeing the sights and enjoying being in the same place for more than a few days.

Went on a short meditation course at the Himalayan Buddhist Meditation Centre just before Christmas. Very interesting, but not sure that Tibetan Buddhist is for me, bit too much ritual and magic for my tastes.

Christmas was fun, ended up at a party in Bodnath (east of Kathmandu, important Buddhist stupa there), held by some western Buddhism students, funky Nepali threesome playing Smoke on the Water, Whole Lotta Love, and some more recent stuff that I failed to recognize.

29th December, went to Tibet on a Land Cruiser trip run by Green Hill Travels (can't travel independently from Nepal to Tibet unless you are very naughty). 5 days across the passes and valleys of the Tibetan plateau, via Shigatse and Gyantse, to Lhasa, where I spent 9 days, see Tibet page for details.

After getting back from Tibet, had a rest day in Kathmandu (met a bunch of people from the truck and caught up with what everyone was up to), then off to Pokhara again for some trekking. A little bit nervous about trekking on my own given the current situation and the general advice not to do this, but reckoned I'd be OK on the popular Jomsom trek, which indeed was fun and rather less crowded that it usually is.

[Rather abbreviated from here]. After trekking, flight to Bangkok, then up north to Chiang Mai and thence to Laos and a trip down the mighty Mekong to Luang Prabang. After the Plain of Jars and canoeing and getting lost in caves in Vang Vieng, down to Vientiane and back to Thailand. Train down to Malaysia, jungle trekking and then to Singapore, before heading back up Malaysian west coast, Malacca, KL, fireflies and mangrove swamps, finally Hainanese chicken and rice in Georgetown and back to Thailand.

Meditation course in Thailand (10 days sleeping on a concrete slab and getting up at 4-30 in the morning), Bangkok again in time to get soaked at Songkran, then Cambodia, more rivers, Battambang, Ankor Wat, Tonle Sap, Phnom Peng, Sihanoukville and then Thailand again and home.